Harrison Barnes: Making UNC Star's Case as No. 1 Overall NBA Draft Pick

North Carolina star forward Harrison Barnes is a phenomenal player and will certainly be a lottery pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.

However, Barnes has a strong case to be the top overall pick, especially if the Tar Heels complete their season with a national championship.

In my opinion, he's quite comparable to Boston Celtics small forward Paul Pierce and also has more athleticism than Pierce.

What you want at the NBA level from an offensive-minded player is the ability to create your own shot in a variety of ways. All the best pro scorers, such as Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant, can create their own offense in multiple ways, which makes them very difficult to defend.

Barnes has a nice mid-range shot, and although it's not at an elite level, it's certainly improving. One thing he excels at is attacking the basket and finishing strong. He has good size and strength, which helps him take contact from bigger defenders and still score at the rim.

Barnes can also shoot off the dribble or pull up and hit an off balance shot, even if contested. This ability to score in a myriad of ways will help him be effective in the NBA right away.

Another reason to like Barnes as the top overall pick is his defensive abilities. He's not a fantastic defender, but the effort level he shows on defense is superb.

While you are a young player, effort is the most important part of defense, because with more experience, your defensive abilities will develop further.

Too many players coming into the NBA don't give the effort required on defense to really become a lock-down defender, but Barnes certainly has the potential to one of those players. With his strong effort and basketball intelligence, there's no reason why Barnes' defense can't drastically improve.

There are very few weaknesses in Barnes' game, and all of them are fixable. His post-game could improve and his movement without the ball could also be better, but none of those aspects of his game are things that cannot be improved with a few more years of experience.

Barnes has the potential to be an elite offensive and defensive player at the NBA level, and that's very rare in today's game. 

He's also a high character kid, which is certainly important when choosing who to take with the top pick.

Even though there are several possible candidates to be taken first overall in this year's draft, one of the safest picks is Barnes, who is guaranteed to be an NBA star in the near future.

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